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Archive for February 24th, 2012
Bug season already? Warm winter may draw them out
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 24th, 2012
USA Today: One of the USA's warmest winters in years could lead to a bug bonanza over the next few weeks, as beetles, ants, termites, wasps and other insects come out much earlier than average.
"Even things like mosquitoes might come out earlier," says Rutgers entomologist George Hamilton, who says the pests typically don't appear until late April.
In some places, the onslaught has already begun: "We're seeing insects out there that we don't usually see this time of year," says Missy Henriksen of the...
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Drought conditions in England ‘set to widen’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 24th, 2012
BBC: Ongoing dry weather over the spring and summer threatens to place more areas of England in a state of drought, the Environment Agency (EA) has warned.
It singled out parts of western, central and south western England and parts of south east Yorkshire.
The agency said time was running out for rain to restore groundwater levels before the new growing season begins.
Earlier this week the South East joined most of East Anglia in a state of official drought.
In parts of south-east England...
CO2 focus should be fossil fuels, not just tar sands
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 24th, 2012
Reuters: Discriminating against tar sands in the name of curbing carbon emissions makes sense, but is also a distraction from a bigger question about how much fossil fuel humankind can safely burn.
A calculation of the carbon dioxide emissions embedded in global crude oil reserves shows that burning these would pump out more CO2 than many scientists and world leaders have deemed safe to the climate, after including additional emissions from deforestation and burning coal and gas.
Simply maintaining...
Ivory Coast: Illicit Timber Trade Exposes the North to Drought
Posted by Inter Press Service: Fulgence Zamblé on February 24th, 2012
Inter Press Service: Environmental groups in Côte d'Ivoire say the illegal logging and sale of wood from the African gum tree is exposing the north of the country to the encroaching desert. The NGOs are calling on the authorities to take firmer action against the illicit timber traders – who allegedly include government officials.
The warning comes as a scandal centring on the seizure of 30 containers of wood sized at two of the country's ports rocks the Ministry of Water and Forestry.
It centres on the seizure...
Drought spreads across England as soil moisture in Anglia reaches record low
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 24th, 2012
Telegraph: Earlier this week the the South East joined most of East Anglia in a state of drought. The soil moisture deficit recorded for East Anglia of 51mm is the driest recorded for this time of year and could mean a very poor harvest for the "bed basket of Britain".
Now the Environment Agency say areas of central and south west England and south east Yorkshire are at risk because of dry weather and extremely low groundwater levels.
There is very little time left for groundwater levels to be restored...
Wisconsin Consider Hunting of Sandhill Crane
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 24th, 2012
New York Times: In Wisconsin, a place where word of dwindling numbers of sandhill cranes set off elaborate conservation efforts decades ago, the birds — elegant, prehistoric-looking creatures that bugle hauntingly — are once more at the center of discussion among state leaders. This time, a member of the State Assembly wants to allow cranes to be hunted. For some among the scores of volunteers who wake up before dawn on a chilly spring day each year to watch the skies for cranes as part of an Annual Midwest Crane...
United Kingdom: Water conservation: Is it possible to make a smaller splash?
Posted by Independent: Simon Usborne on February 24th, 2012
Independent: Twenty litres of water looks like quite a lot when it's laid out in front of you in 10 bottles. But it is considered by development experts to be the minimum amount a person needs each day for the basics – drinking, cooking and washing – in countries where water is most scarce. At this rate, those places may one day include Britain, where ministers this week hosted a drought summit and warned of a repeat of the thirsty days of 1976, when water was rationed and forests were so dry many burned down....
Climate change leads to pollution of indigenous people’s water supplies
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on February 24th, 2012
Agence France-Presse: Harper's comparative research also takes her to Uganda, where she is studying how climate events similar to those affecting Canada's North are affecting Batwa peoples' health. The Batwa are conservation refugees who were moved out of their forest homeland when the Ugandan government made it a national park to protect the silverback gorillas.
Indigenous people around the world are among the most vulnerable to climate change and are increasingly susceptible to the pathogen loads found in potable...